Grace
My all-time favorite hymn is Living for Jesus. That hymn captures the ultimate desire of my heart. However, there are many more hymns that I love, particularly those hymns that remind us of the amazing, wonderful, and marvelous grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.
The question for today is, do we really understand and appreciate grace? Do we really appreciate how amazing, how wonderful, and how marvelous grace really is? I am sure that most of God’s children do. I am equally sure that we will not truly or fully appreciate grace until we have stepped into the presence of Him who has bestowed grace upon us.
Grace. First of all, there seems to be no reference in the Old Testament or the New Testament that informs us that God extends His grace to anyone but His children. A. W. Pink says it this way, “Grace is a perfection of the Divine Character which is exercised only toward the elect.” (1) (He aptly and accurately differentiates between grace for the elect and mercy for all of God’s creatures, both fallen & redeemed)
Secondly, what makes grace so unique is that it cannot be earned, merited, or deserved. Sadly, due to our sinful nature which we inherited from Adam, we do not even desire grace. Until we have come to experience grace, we don’t ask for it or desire it. God grants grace to those whom He chooses. This is what is truly amazing, marvelous, and or wonderful! There is nothing that we can do to obtain or be worthy of grace. God extends grace freely, unfettered, and simply as he pleases. There is no reason why God extended grace to you or to me other than He purposed to do so by His good pleasure.
G. S. Bishop once stated that, “Grace is a provision for men who are so fallen that they cannot lift the axe of justice, so corrupt that they cannot change their own nature, so averse to God that they cannot turn to Him, so blind that they cannot see Him, so deaf that they cannot hear Him, and so dead that He Himself must open their graves and lift them into resurrection.” (2)
(1) A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1975), p. 66
(2) George Sayles Bishop, The Doctrines of Grace and Kindred Themes (New York: Gospel Publishing, 1910), 156
2 comments:
Most uplifting to read Greg.
Enjoy your weekend.
Yvonne.
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